DENR: P21.4-M ‘overspending’ on meals ‘reasonable’

MANILA, Philippines – “Reasonable and properly justified.”

This was how the Department of the Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) countered the finding of government auditors that the office of Secretary Ramon Paje spent on meals about 3,000% more than budget in 2012.

The COA report showed that though the Office of the Secretary was given only P704,000 for food and catering services last year, it spent P22.09 million, going overbudget by a whopping 3,037%. (READ: Paje’s office overspends P21.4 million on meals)

DENR Assistant Secretary for Administrative and Finance Corazon Davis said this was far from excessive.

“We can assure that these expenses are reasonable and properly justified,” said 

The increase in expenses was due to the unusually large number of national conferences and activities the department conducted last year, Davis said.

That year, several systems were introduced to the department. This meant more meetings and consultations had to be conducted, and food had to be served to participants. Among the matters taken up in these consultations were the performance-based incentive system, strategic planning and management system, updating of the DENR rationalization plan, and revision of major final outputs and performance indicators.  

A series of consultations were also held for the implementation of the National Greening Program, Cadastral Survey Program, and the anti-illegal logging program, Davis said.

Social mobilization activities for education and communication programs for the environment also added to food expenses.

“These programs required a lot of focused group discussions and consultations not only among our field officials and implementers but also with other agencies of the government as well as with other sectors,” said Davis.

A major global conference held at the start of the year bloated the budget even more.

The International Global Conference on Land-Based Ocean Connection held in January 2012 was attended by over 500 local and foreign participants from 90 countries.

The Office of the President gave DENR the approval to host the 5-day event, said Davis.

The department’s hosting even received commendations from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and paved the way for country being named the host of the 2015 APEC Meeting on global management of oceans, she added.

‘Proper perspective’

Davis also emphasized the department’s many bureaus and regional offices.

“Let us put things into proper perspective,” she said. “Note that food expenditures incurred by the Office of the Secretary represent food and catering expenses which involved participation of 4 bureaus and 16 regional offices and other stakeholders.”

In fact, they managed to “save on hotel expenses” by holding their conferences in the department’s social hall and training rooms, defended Davis.

Among the abuses noted in the audit report were:

• providing breakfast even if meetings started at 9 am;
• serving morning snacks and lunch even at conferences that started after 12 noon;
• giving out full meals or snacks even for “routine/ordinary meetings that last for just an hour or two.”

Other findings included:

• hiring two caterers to provide food during the World Water Day celebration on March 22, 2012
• going through middlemen to buy food from fastfood chains Jollibee and McDonalds for the IP Phones User’s Training late in the year.

To respond to suspicions on why the department had to hire middlemen to buy food from fastfood chains for a training event, DENR chief of staff Analiza Teh told GMA News this only happened when the budget could not accommodate the number of participants.

“Minsan napipilitan gumamit ng middleman kapag, example, nag-allocate sila ng 100 tapos ‘yung budget was for 100 then suddenly kinulang then they have to get more.”

(Sometimes they are forced to use middlemen when, for example, they allocated for 100 and the budget was for 100 then suddenly it’s not enough then they have to get more.)

Nevertheless, the department has taken note of the COA report and recommendations. They are set to implement more guidelines on food spending which will impose the following restrictions:

• Breakfast cannot be served if the meeting starts past 6 am.
• Only snacks will be served during meetings that last more than two hours.
• Dinner cannot be served if meeting does not last past 6pm.

Davis gave assurances, “We express appreciation of the COA findings and will continue to institute policy reforms in financial management.” – Rappler.com